Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Just picked up my daughter. She was wearing the kimono-type shirt that they wear at the restaurant with an apron which means that she got the job! She made it through training! Not only that, they let her keep her tips tonight. She made a whopping $29.18 and she is SO proud. My husband had the idea of framing her first dollar bill made at her first job and I'm going to get a frame this weekend so that she can hang it in her room.

She is absolutely beautiful in the kimono-type shirt. I will take a picture of her in it soon and post it.

They want her to come back this Thursday. She will only make tips then. Afterwards, she will work every Tuesday and Thursday and starting next Tuesday she'll be making her hourly wage of $8.00 an hour plus tips. She figured out tonight that if she was paid her hourly wage with the tips, she would have made $69.18 just today. Not bad for a 15 year old!

I told her that she can spend the money that she made tonight however she wants but that next time she is going to keep a percentage for savings. At first she really didn't like the idea of me deciding what percentage of money she should save because she said, "Momma, does this mean that even though I have a job and am working HARD and am making MY OWN money that YOU will tell me how I can spend it?" I looked at her at her with a smile and said, "I realize that you don't like this and I understand why you wouldn't. I have been planning for years that when you got your first job that I would take you to the bank to open your own checking and savings account so that you can start learning how to spend your money responsibly. It's easy to just blow it and in the end you'll kick yourself. Not only that, but I want you to save certain percentages for certain things and this will even help you with math and percentages. You'll learn how to balance your checkbook and basically be taught how to manage your money. A lot of people, including me, was never taught this and when they became adults they really messed up their finances. I don't want that for you. If you mess up your finances when you are an adult, it won't be because you didn't know any better."

She smiled while agreeing and then asked that we start saving a percentage of her money next week and let her keep the tip money she makes Thursday night. I said it was OK to do that and she'll start saving next week. I asked her what she was going to do with the tip money she'll make this week and she said that she really couldn't decide if she wanted to save it for her car or spend it. She's been wanting "Guitar Hero 3" and I reminded her of it and said that she could save the money to buy that for herself since it retails here at around $97.00. Guess what she said?

She actually said...and I cannot believe this...

"No, Mom, I'm going to wait to get it for my birthday or Christmas. I don't want to spend my money for that." I said, "Oh, but you want to spend mine!" to which she replied with no words but a smile.